


Empty Promise

by jayballing



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: CF Route, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24700927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayballing/pseuds/jayballing
Summary: What they want more than anything is to protect each other.Hilclaude week day 7: free day
Relationships: Hilda Valentine Goneril/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: Hilclaude Week 2020





	Empty Promise

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like it :)

Hilda was furious.

The tension was escalating in the Alliance. Claude was doing a phenomenal job of keeping peace among all the nobles while also making strategical moves, such as contacting Nader to join in the battle that was bound to happen sooner rather than later.

Although phenomenal as he was, Claude was at his limit. Hilda figured it was for the better that Edelgard was bringing the battle to them. It was truly the best chance Claude had at defeating the Empire.

And what Claude needs to win is soldiers. Particularly strong soldiers that can yield relic axes. Such as herself.

She has been trying to bring up the topic for a while. Claude trusted her with all tasks that required the organization of teams and task forces. He had explained that he couldn’t think of anyone better than her to tell others what to do.

“Hilda, you have a lifetime of experience making sure people do things for you. I trust you more than anyone to make sure others are doing their jobs.” He had said and then winked at her.

She was, indeed, efficient at getting things done that needed to be done by teams. She had always been charming that way, always getting what she wants.

Which brings her to her current anger and the topic she is trying to talk with Claude about. To fight against Edelgard. To truly be his second-in-command.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Hilda. In case we need backup, I need someone on standby to call reinforcements and—”

“We both know there won’t be anytime for reinforcements, specially with the little scheme you are cooking up with Nader.” She was walking towards him and Claude had no other option if not hit the wall as the tiny pink-haired Hilda Goneril yelled at him.

“That may be true, but—”

“Claude! You only got one shot! Edelgard will bring her A game to this battle, and you are benching me of all people? To be on _standby?_ ” Hilda was exasperated. Claude is brilliant. Surely he understood that not having one of his best soldiers out there was nonsense.

Claude moved his hand through his hair and stopped at the nape of his and then looked at her with an apologetic look. That’s when Hilda stormed out from the conference room.

So, Hilda was furious.

She went to her room and grabbed a little accessories kit she took with her any where she went. It helped her relax to make bracelets. The room wasn’t really hers, it was more of the place where she slept and kept her belongings while she helped Claude with war efforts. She had left the Goneril estate to follow Claude about a year after Edelgard took over the monastery. Claude moved between territories often as to avoid being in one place for too long of a time and make himself an easier target.

“Nothing worse for a potential target than being predictable and attached, Hilda.” He would tell her every time she complained about moving.

She stopped thinking about moving and returned her attention to her bracelets. If one could aggressively put together bracelets, Hilda guessed that’s what she was doing right now.

She had been making bracelets for about an hour when she heard a knock.

“Come in.” She said, knowing exactly who it was.

A sheepish Claude entered the room, he closed the door behind him and sat at the edge of her bed, as Hilda sat crossed leg making her bracelets, using her pillow as a prop.

“So, you seemed pretty angry earlier.” He started.

“Are you saying I look less angry now?” She said without stopping making the bracelets or looking at him.

“Not necessarily, but at least you aren’t making rings. That’s when I know I really messed up to the point of no return.”

Once, Claude had asked Hilda to go meet a carrier right after sunset by a bridge north of the territory they were. The trek would take six hours and Claude would have gone himself, but he had a meeting he could not skip at all that evening. Hilda was less than pleased at the prospect of riding a horse for six hours with a bunch of soldiers following her to make sure she was fine, as well as the prospect of not sleeping.

They arrived there at right before sunset and waited until the sun was right on top of their heads. Hilda figured the carrier would not arrive and was probably dead in a ditch. She thought was better to let Claude know as soon as possible.

Her and her troop made their way back around dinner time. Claude looked terrified when he saw her. She figured it had to do with her looks, she looked like a mess with her hair on a bun instead of the usual ponytail and all sweat after a hot summer day waiting around for a carrier that never arrived.

No, it turns out Claude was terrified because the carrier took a shortcut and went straight to Claude, bypassing the bridge. According to the carrier, he had told Claude that was the plan since the beginning. Claude had mixed up strategies and though that the conversation about the bridge was the actual plan. The carrier had just left an hour before she arrived.

She made 137 rings that week that she didn’t speak to Claude.

“I ran out of ring material after the carrier debacle.”

“It was an honest mistake.”

“I know. I was sleep deprived, which is probably why I was so angry then. I can forgive you for an honest mistake. I have a harder time accepting a lie to keep me out of the battlefield, though.”

She finally stopped making the current bracelet and looked at him.

“Hilda, I try to want very few things. The things I do want are ambitious: to yield the Sword of the Creator, to unify Fodlan, to bring peace between Fodlan and Almyra,” He then smile at her. “Very basic stuff.”

“You also know that I’m used to scheming my way through things and manipulating others. I’m not proud of it—”

“Liar.” She interrupted with a smirk.

“But it is a necessary evil.” He finished with a smirk matching hers.

“You always have been part of my scheming. You know all the people I’m trying to, erm, _convince_.” He went for a different word than manipulate and that made Hilda chuckle.

“There was one scheme you weren’t aware of, though.” And he reached for her hand, with the bracelet kit and its materials in between them.

Sometimes that happened. The lines of what they were would be blurred. Claude was more than a friend, but certainly not her lover. He was her leader, but also the person she trusted the most on the entire world. They had almost become more during their time at the academy, but that had an abrupt end and they never explicitly addressed the fact that they had almost started a relationship and didn’t because of war.

To hear that he had kept her in the dark, that hurt. But she let him keep going. She couldn’t afford to be distracted by the greatest what-if in her life, as much as she wanted to be true.

“You see, there is something else I want. Something that I want more than anything else. I think about how much I want it all the time, and it makes it so hard to concentrate in the battlefield. I’ve been feeling like that for a while.”

“You should have told me, I would help.”

“You are the only one that could help, but also the only one that could ruin it.”

She was truly confused.

“Hilda, I couldn’t afford to have the one person I see as a constant in my future dying.”

She was no longer truly confused.

He was struggling to get it all out, but Hilda saw where he was going.

“I want to tell you so many things about how much you mean to me. The things I want to do with you.”

At that, she raised her eyebrows in an attempt to make him embarrassed at his choice of words.

“Ugh, poor phrasing. I mean, not really, what you are, well, implying is not wrong, but that’s not the point, what I want to say is that –” He stopped and took a breath in. “I think about the future, and regardless of the outcome of the battles to come, I see you by my side, as a confidant, as my best friend, and as the person I love. I didn’t want to tell you any of this like that, I was going to wait until after the battle, but you deserve me being honest with you.”

He clearly had more to say, but he stopped to give Hilda a chance to speak up if she wished to do so. She simply rubbed her thumb on top of his hand, encouraging him to keep going.

“I wanted to keep you safe, because I’m selfish and I want you to live through this battle. You know that I’m telling everyone to follow Edelgard if our efforts are in vain, but to have you front and center for that battle? It would be almost as if you were bait for the Nader ambush. So I came up with this standby stuff. It’s obvious I’d never use it.”

Claude said most of that in one breath and didn’t realized when Hilda moved the bracelet kit to be right next to him.

“How do you think I feel? We’ve been dancing around each other for a while, but I guess I can come out and say it: I want to be with you, I want a life with you, I love you and the thought of you dying during that battle is unbearable.” She was fighting the tears daring to stream down her face.

“But more than anything, I need you to understand there is no place I’d feel safer, there is no place I’d rather be than fighting alongside you, fighting _for_ you.” She moved her hand to his faces and caressed his cheek with her thumb.

He held her hand there and whispered softly. “Promise me you will retreat if things are looking grim. Promise me you will retreat and do whatever Edelgard demands if I’m not around.” He could no longer hold back his tears.

Hilda thought about it. She could use these possible final moments they had together arguing about whether she would retreat or not, or she could tell him what he wanted to hear, and they could enjoy this time together (as short as it was) in peace.

“I promise, Claude.”

It was an empty promise and they both knew it.

**Author's Note:**

> ... And that's a wrap for Hilclaude week on my end! Real talk, I wasn't super happy with any of my pieces, but they would otherwise just sit on my computer forever. 
> 
> I REALLY want to write a multi-chapter fic, so maybe that will be a summer project. We will see.
> 
> If you want to check out updates, feel free to check out my twitter at @jayballing4
> 
> Thank you so much for reading it and I hope you enjoyed it!


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